Neal McDonough

2004 – Walking Tall

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Walking Tall (2004)
  • IMDB: link

Walking TallOn this date ten years ago Dwayne “It’s Okay to Call Me The Rock Again” Johnson‘s remake of 1973’s Walking Tall hit theaters. Loosely based on real events, the simple premise finds war hero Chris Vaughn (The Rock) return home to find his home town at the mercy of an unscrupulous businessman (Neal McDonough) and old high school rival who keeps a stranglehold on the small Washington town with a shady business dealings and rigged casino.

Discovering the man’s total disrespect for the law, and after being assaulted and almost killed by the man’s hired thugs, Vaughn finds no help from the local police which causes the former Army Special Forces ass-kicker to bust-up the casino with only his fists and a two-by-four before running for office on the platform of cleaning up the town.

Along for the ride the film casts Johnny Knoxville in the role of comic relief as Vaughn’s idiot best-friend and Ashley Scott as a childhood friend turned stripper turned love interest.

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Red 2

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Red 2
  • IMDB: link

Red 2Not every movie deserves a sequel. Based on the early 2000’s comic from Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner, Red was good dumb fun about retired spies forced to get back into the game when their past caught up with them. Not straining any brain muscles, the sequel is roughly the same premise as Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), Marvin (John Malkovich), and Frank’s girlfriend Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker) find themselves marked for death based on Frank and Marvin’s part in a secret operation more than three decades ago.

The movie begins in much the same way as another of Willis’ regrettable sequels as the former spy attempts to lay low in the suburbs with a girlfriend who wants more crazy adventures. Forced on the run, the threesome are pursued by the world’s best hitman (Byung-hun Lee) with a personal score to settle, as well as Victoria (Helen Mirren) who is ordered by MI6 to put Frank and Marvin in the ground. Brian Cox reprises his role as Ivan, and the movie also offers up Catherine Zeta-Jones as the Russian spy who has Frank wrapped around her little finger and Anthony Hopkins as a mad scientist locked away for 30 years.

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Captain America: The First Avenger on Blu-ray

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Captain America: The First Avenger
  • IMDB: link

captain-america-first-avenger-blu-rayMarvel’s first big budget Captain America film gives us the origin of  Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) through he days in WWII and even his reappearance in present time. Evans is terrific in the role and Captain America: The First Avenger provides just the right mix of action, earnestness, and cheesy sentiment. For more the film itself check out my original review.

The film worked slightly better for me on Blu-ray. The CGI effect of skinny Steve Rogers was more believable and a couple of the sequences I had slight problems with felt more natural the second time around. I still have a few issues with the film including the awkward slow motion jumps Cap makes in front of explosions, the lack of Nazis, the clumsy sequence where our hero gets captured by the Red Skull‘s (Hugo Weaving) men, and the costume still has far too many unnecessary straps.

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Captain America: The First Avenger

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Captain America: The First Avenger
  • IMDB: link

Captain America: The First AvengerDespite being around for 70 years, Marvel’s second most iconic hero (behind only Spider-Man) has had trouble finding his way to the big screen. Aside from his appearances in various cartoons over the years Captain America‘s career boils down to an old WWII serial, the perhaps best-forgotten 1970’s made-for-TV movies starring Reb Brown, and the 1990 live-action film which ended up going straight to video.

Attempting to rectify this oversight Marvel Studios and director Joe Johnston bring Captain America to the big screen with Captain America: The First Avenger which tells the basic story of Steve Rogers’ origin with a few interesting changes.

We meet Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), a plucky young patriotic American who wants to enlist to fight Nazis alongside his best pal Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), as he’s turned down yet again for service due to medical reasons. Just looking at the scrawny young man you’d have a hard time believing he would eventually become the world’s greatest soldier.

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Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
  • IMDB: link

street-fighter-the-legend-of-chun-li-posterThere are bad movies, there are awfully bad movies, and then there are movies so ridiculously bad they force you to bellow with laughter and titter with glee as they instantly earn guilty pleasure status.

Street Figther: The Legend of Chun-Li isn’t a good movie, let’s get that straight. It is however a enjoyable trainwreck and one of the most unintentionally funny films I’ve ever seen.

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